2017 Deodhar Trophy, day 3- round-up: Tamil Nadu through to the finals after thrashing India A

Tamil Nadu beat India A by 73 runs in the last and final league match of the 2017 Deodhar Trophy in Vizag. With this win, the 2017 Vijay Hazare Trophy champions will face India B in the finals. Dinesh Karthik continued his fine form and made a case for himself ahead of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy with a match-winning 93.

Chasing 304 to win, India A batsmen got their team off to a decent start with Mayank Agarwal and Mandeep Singh scoring 31 runs in the first three overs before Mayank was dismissed by M Mohammad for 12. Mandeep, in the company of Ambati Rayudu steadied the ship and saw through the field restriction overs without any further hiccups. Rayudu departed for 21 after he was caught and bowled off the bowling of Sai Kishore.

Mumbai Indians' all-rounder Krunal Pandya, who had a brilliant Vijay Hazare Trophy, kept his team in the hunt with some sensible batting. Mandeep reached his fifty off 51 balls and Krunal was dismissed soon after for 36. Manoj Tiwary lost his wicket against the run of play, thanks a brilliant piece of fielding by TN skipper Vijay Shankar. Rishabh Pant followed Tiwary back to the pavilion in quick time and the new batsman Deepak Hooda threatened to take the game away from TN.

Hooda was dismissed by Sai Kishore for a 23-ball 26 and in the next five overs, India A lost their next 4 wickets for just 16 runs as they were bundled out for just 230. Mandeep was the last wicket to fall and he missed out on a well-deserved century by just 3 runs. Rahil Shah and Sai Kishore bowled brilliantly for TN and took three wickets apiece.

Earlier in the day, after choosing to bat first, Tamil Nadu managed to post 303/6 in their 50 overs, 30 short of what they would have thought after the 35^th over. Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur made some early inroads by dismissing both the TN openers in the ninth over with the scorecard reading just 47 runs. N Jagadeesan, in the company of in-form Dinesh Karthik rebuilt the innings and took Tamil Nadu to a decent position.

Both the batsmen scored fifties and were looking good for individual centuries. When things are going well, Jagadeesan was stumped by Pant off the bowling of Pandya for 71 and four overs later, Karthik departed for 93. Some notable contributions from Vijay Shankar and Baba Indrajith took Tamil Nadu to a decent total.

Harbhajan Singh had yet another forgettable match as he conceded 57 runs for just one wicket in his 8 overs and with the bat, he was dismissed for a second-ball duck. The finals will be played at the same venue a couple on March 29.

Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 303/6 (Dinesh Karthik 93, N Jagadeesan 71, Shardul Thakur 3/49) beat India A 230 in 44.4 overs (Mandeep Singh 97, Sai Kishore 3/39, Rahil Shah 3/37) by 73 runs.